Alice's Return to Wonderland
by Autumn1597
Summary: It's been a few months since Alice has returned from China. Eventually, her natural curiosity gets the better of her, and she finds the rabbit hole. But what will she find when she returns to Wonderland? Rated M for later chapters.
1. Chapter 1

Blonde tresses fell forward in her face as she let out a piercing scream while she once more experienced the fall down the rabbit hole.

It had been a few months since she had come back from her voyage to China, but all the while she couldn't help but think of the wonderland she had experienced before she left. And so it was almost every day she would return to the edge of the forest, searching for the tree that the white rabbit had led her to.

But today, she had found it, and before she knew it, she was falling. After the first shriek, she began to laugh, realizing just how much she missed the place where she managed to find herself. She watched pianos and furniture and various sorts of objects passed her by as she fell to where she once thought was the center of the earth.

Eventually, she landed, first on the ceiling, and then once more falling rather unceremoniously to the floor. Sorting herself out and brushing the bits of dirt off of her dress, she strolled over to the table and grabbed the little familiar bottle that read, "Drink me."

"Oh, I do hope it tastes better this time around..," she mumbles to herself. And then she spotted a brass key on the completely glass table, as if a reminder, and snatched it up before taking a sip of Pishalver and setting the bottle back on the table.

"Fresh tea."

She shrank a few inches.

"Apple pie."

She shrank a few feet.

"Fresh beef, _oh my_!"

She nearly fell over as she finally reached her shrinking capacity. Once she managed to catch her balance, Alice darted over to the door, hidden by the same curtain and pushed in the key and gave it a turn, opening up the door to her new home.


	2. Chapter 2

A gasp escaped her lips as she took in the sight around her. What had happened? It hadn't been that long since she had been gone, had it? "But that's right," she said to herself. "Days happened in our one day. A decade could have passed in my absence!" Her eyes only seemed to get even sadder as she took in the almost barren land. The talking flowers had gone with only enormous dead stems in their place. There were no rocking horseflies or dragonflies flitting about, or dodo birds or even her fancy rabbit in a waistcoat with a watch.

"How curious indeed!" she murmured, walking about the grey land, missing the colorful plants and the enormous mushrooms. She passed on through the forest, wishing for the disappearing Cheshire Cat to keep her company, although in not nearly the same circumstances. She glanced down at her arm at the reminder of the claws of the Bandersnatch and winced at the long gone pain.

It got darker as she walked, the empty forest made her shiver with chills. Alice kept glancing over her shoulder, feeling as if someone were following her, as she made her way to the ever going tea party.

She froze when spotting the abandoned table, though. The Hatter. Where was he? She rummaged about the table, stirring up unmoved tea cups and sugar jars and saucers, searching for the main reason of her coming back. Oh how she regretted leaving him. It only occurred to her how she felt after she had gone back to dull reality. She had fallen for him during her time. She had fallen for her dress maker, her protector, her knight in that amazing hat of his.

Her chest gave a dull ache when she realized she had come this way for absolutely nothing. A sob escaped her shaking form as she fell to her knees, arms tightening themselves around her slight form. "Oh, Tarrant, I…," she gasped between sobs, "I'm so sorry. I was too late!" She blubbered on for a bit more, most of it incoherent, but bits such as "I shall never get home!" or "no point in anything now, Alice!" slipped out as she cried her small body dry.

"…Alice?"


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N: Sorry for the long wait for this chapter. I had school and things came up and I just couldn't get the words out, but I got it. And thanks for the reviews guys (: Enjoy!**

Alice's tears didn't let up. She continued on, her words becoming even more slurred. "Oh it's only my imagination! He isn't really here!" she cried out. "Tarrant, I'm so sorry!"

"Alice dear, whatever is the matter?" The Hatter lifted the shrunken girl in front of his face, gently wiping the girl's tears with his calloused but careful hands.

Alice gasped and her eyes flew open when she felt the Hatter's rough fingers against her cheeks. Never had she been so glad to see his off-green eyes. "Tarrant?" she whispered quietly, in disbelief of what she was seeing.

The Hatter gave her a toothy smile, but it didn't quite reach his eccentric eyes. "Alice, my love, what's wrong? However did you get here?"

Alice wiped her still crying eyes on the sleeves of her dress and laughed quietly. "Oh Tarrant, I've missed you so!"

The Hatter started walking toward his home, where he had been reliving his nightmares for years, being careful not to let Alice slip from his grasp as he headed inside. "And I, you, dearest." He set her on his table where she almost blended in with the cups and jars. Tarrant moved to his cupboards where he searched and set things down as he did. "Now, my Alice, why all of those dreadful tears?"

Alice sat the edge of the table, swinging her legs back and forth at the edge. Not much longer she almost fell after hearing "my Alice." Since when did she become his? As she straightened herself up, she realized she quite liked the sound of those words, though. She glanced around the kitchen, determining how to answer his question.

"I…," she started, her cheeks already burning. He had seen her absolutely bawling her eyes out. "I was afraid I would never see you again, Tarrant," she whispered, head bowed. After all, who wants a little girl clinging on to them?

The Hatter walked over with a miniature cake, reading "Eat Me," he had managed to find in his cupboards, giving a frown, although his heart glowed. She come had all this way for him, Tarrant Hightop? He shook himself of those thoughts and offered her the cake, still frowning. Why was she so upset? He hadn't done anything wrong, had he?

Alice took a small bite, momentarily reveling in the sweetness of it, not noticing that her feet were soon nearly touching the ground over the edge of the table. Meanwhile, Hatter looked away. Her clothes had stretched rather immodestly when she had returned to her normal size.

"Oh, I'll… be right back," he said, retreating to the hallway. Alice watched him go, biting the inside of her lip. What had she done now?

"Just great," she mumbled to herself, sliding off of the table and taking a look around. She had never been inside the Hatter's home before. The walls, once a bright yellow with green stripes, had long since faded. The cupboards were now a blue-grey color with rusty handles, and the table was cluttered with chipped cups and cracked tea pots. The wooden chairs were weathered, and the curtains against the windows were full of cobwebs. It looked as if the place had been rather unlived in for the past few months at the least.

The Hatter returned with a dress he had made during his inspired days and offered it to her, still averting his eyes, although Alice had quite filled out since the last time they had met. "My dear, I think your dress, um…, stretched quite a bit when you returned to your right proper Alice size." The corners of his lips turned up, giving a small smile her way. "You can change in the room at the end of the hall on your left."

Alice glanced down and realized that the fabric did indeed rip a bit here and there, wondering how on Earth hadn't she realized it was a tight fit? Her arm wrapped itself around her chest and took the proffered dress. Clearing her throat, she gave a quick, "Thank you," and walked for the room down the hall.

Hatter watched her go, his eyes darkening just a bit as she went, feeling as if the light that had suddenly came into his life not half an hour ago were leaving him in utter darkness. He shook his head. "What is the hatter with me?" he questioned himself, moving to the stove to prepare some tea. "She's just down the hall. It's not as if she were going away forever," he continued on, setting the kettle on the stove. But still, his heart ached even though the center of his thoughts was just down the hall.

Alice walked into the room Hatter gave her. It was rather small, but the bed took up most of the space. Clothes and hats took up most of the rest, strewn across the furniture. "Bed?" she thought, eyes widening slightly, registering where she was. She was in the Hatter's bedroom.


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N: I realize it's not much in length, but I do hope the content satisfies. Thanks for reading (:**

Alice set the dress on the bed and gave the room a thorough glance. It was probably the most lived in room of the house. You could see some of the Hatter in this room, rather than just little bits of clutter. She glanced around, and almost instinctively started tidying up the little room, just so Hatter no longer had to sleep in a bed full of hats.

Afterwards, she took a seat on the recently cleared bed and unlaced her shoes and set them aside. She proceeded to take off the knee highs she had compromised with her mother to wear. It was when she started struggling to slide the tight dress off that the Hatter knocked. "Alice, dear, are you alright? You've been quite a while," he worried on the other side of the door.

"Oh, yes. Um, give me a moment," Alice called to him, sounding flustered.

Hatter frowned. What could have caused her to take so long? Was she distracted? Or had she found something among his clothes and things? He waited on the other side of the door until he heard a loud ripping sound. Had she fallen and grabbed hold of his curtains to catch herself? Or had something else happened? Without a second thought, he opened the door and went in only to hear a slight gasp.

There in his sights was a very flushed Alice, her arms quickly covering up her exposed chest and her most private area down below. By her feet was her dress and underclothes in tatters from where she had, apparently, ripped them.

"Oh, Alice! I'm so terribly sorry! I thought you had fallen and needed help," he explained quickly, trying not to glance up at her, although that did nothing to quell the sudden fire in his stomach. She's Alice, he thought, and that's all that mattered. She was perfect, with her long blonde tresses and her inquisitive eyes and her muchness. There's no one he ever wanted more.

The whistling kettle stirred him from his thoughts as he hurried out of the room to fix the tea, although that wasn't the only thing that needed fixing at that moment. Alice, on the other hand, was quite shell-shocked, standing there for a moment, and then shut the door and hastily slipped on the new dress. "Much looser than that stretched thing," she glanced towards the ground where the remains of her previous dress lay and then down at her new attire. The blue and yellow chiffon fell to her knees and after seeing that it rather showed off her lady assets, she felt a new sense of confidence coursing through her. It was with this confidence that she made her way down the hall where she would attempt to covet the Hatter's heart. The sad thing she didn't realize was that she already had.


End file.
